A cross-sectional study on oral hygiene practices, home care challenges, and barriers to seek dental care for children with autism spectrum disorder from the caregiver's perspective

Abstract

Objectives: To collect and analyse data regarding the oral hygiene practices, home care challenges, and the barriers faced by children with autism in seeking dental care from the caregiver's perspective.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 80 subjects comprising 40 subjects in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) group and 40 in the comparison group of the typically developing peer (TDP) group. Caregivers of children diagnosed with ASD aged between 4 and 12 and attending therapy centres in Ahmedabad city were included. Matching was done between the ASD and TDP groups for age and sex for both children and caregivers as well as educational qualification of the caregiver. Data were collected using a self-designed, validated questionnaire and analysed using Chi-square test at a 5% level of significance.

Results: ASD individuals were brushing less frequently, needing more supervision during brushing and using fingers to clean the teeth over TDPs. Caregivers of ASD individuals display significantly lower awareness of various dental issues explored, less proactive engagement with dental professionals, and significantly more barriers in seeking dental care for their ward for all the variables explored than caregivers of the TDP group.

Conclusions: Caregivers of children with ASD were not adequately aware about their child's oral health and encountered increased difficulty in maintaining routine oral hygiene for their children at home and accessing suitable dental care compared to the caregivers of children from the TDP.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; barriers; caregivers; dental care; oral health.